Run Faster: Six Adaptive Running Techniques

An excerpt from Run Faster: From 5k To the Marathon

Every elite coach has a training philosophy. Mine is called adaptive running. It is based on my belief that a responsive, evolving, creative approach to training is better than an approach that is too structured and formulaic. Simply put, there is no single training formula that works perfectly for every runner.

Adaptive running is not about reinventing the wheel of training for each athlete. There are certain training methods that I believe to be effective for every runner. Creating a customized training plan for yourself is simply a matter of learning these methods and applying them in the way that suits you best.

Even though I train each of my runners uniquely on the level of details, on a group level there are some general characteristics that each runner's training shares with that of the others. These general characteristics represent the training methods that I have found to be beneficial for every runner, and therefore to be essential characteristics of any successful training program.

There are twelve general methods that characterize my adaptive running system. In this article, we'll take a brief look at six of these methods. You can learn more about each method, plus all of the details you need to apply them, in our book, Run Faster.

1. Consistent, Moderately High Running Volume

General running volume – or how much you run – is the most basic parameter of training and therefore the first parameter that each runner should consider in creating a customized training plan. How many times per week should I run? How many miles per week? How much should my running volume increase from the beginning to the end of my training plan? These are the questions you need to answer before asking any others as you look ahead to your next training cycle.

The running volume that is most appropriate for you depends on your next peak-race goal, your capacity to absorb and recover from frequent runs and longer runs, and your training history. As a general rule, I recommend that runners consistently maintain a moderately high running volume relative to these individual considerations.

I like to split the difference between the extremes in volume emphasis and intensity emphasis. I believe that high running volume is indispensable for maximal aerobic development. However, high- intensity training clearly provides fitness benefits that moderate-volume training does not. Since the only way to truly maximize running mileage is to forgo high-intensity training, I believe that overemphasizing mileage is a mistake. Most runners will get the best results by finding a balance between quality (intensity) and quantity (volume). So the adaptive running approach is to do as much running at various faster speeds as you can do without seriously limiting the total running volume you can absorb, and to do as much total running as you can do without seriously limiting the amount of high-intensity running you can absorb. Naturally, the precise formula is different for each runner, and finding it requires experimentation.

Another aspect of my philosophy on running volume is consistency. Some training systems entail large fluctuations in running volume throughout the training cycle. I prefer to keep the overall running volume fairly consistent throughout the training cycle while manipulating other variables to produce fitness gains.

The rationale for consistency in running volume is, first of all, that it does no harm to maintain a relatively high volume year-round. As long as you take one or two breaks each year and reduce the overall workload of your training when appropriate, you won't wear yourself down. Secondly, having to build your running fitness from a low level to the level required for peak fitness can really bog down a training program, because volume increases must be executed gradually to avoid overtraining and injuries, and it's very risky to increase overall running mileage and high-intensity running mileage simultaneously. You'll be able to build fitness faster and peak at a higher performance level if you start each training cycle with a relatively high volume of running. And the only way to safely start a training cycle at a fairly high volume is never to allow your training volume to drop too low.

A third benefit of maintaining moderately high running mileage more or less year-round is that it reduces injury risk. Injuries tend to occur during periods of increasing running volume. If you keep your mileage relatively high, you will minimize these risky volume ramp-up periods in your training.

2. Nonlinear Periodization

The term "periodization" refers to how one's training evolves from the beginning to the end of a training cycle. Periodization is considered linear when each period or phase of training is very different from the other periods in terms of the degree to which each training type is emphasized or deemphasized. Periodization is considered nonlinear when all of the training types are mixed together throughout the training cycle and changes in emphasis are less extreme. My approach to periodization is nonlinear.

Traditionally, linear periodization has been the more popular approach. And even today, a lot of coaches divide the training cycle into distinct phases and put a strong emphasis on just one type of training in each phase. By contrast, my training plans feature a more even balance of training types throughout the training cycle. My runners always work on every aspect of running fitness. The distribution of emphasis does change, but I do not reduce any training type to mere "lip-service" level, or phase it out entirely, as others do. The only exception is the final few weeks of training before a peak race, called the sharpening period, when we really zero in on race-pace training.

3. Progression from General Training to Specific Training

One of the most important principles of sports performance is the principle of specificity. It refers to the fact that the body adapts very specifically to the demands placed upon it in training. Due to the principle of specificity, there is no such thing as truly all-around running fitness. The running fitness of every runner is always limited, reflecting the specific nature of the training he or she has done.

The most important ramification of the principle of specificity for competitive runners is that race-specific fitness requires race-pace training. Doing highly race-specific workouts in your peak weeks of training will ensure that your body is specifically adapted to your particular race time goal.

The principle of specificity only goes so far, however. If you took this principle to the extreme, you would perform challenging race-specific workouts throughout the training cycle. The problem with this approach is that the body can progressively adapt to this type of training for only a few weeks before it reaches a temporary adaptive limit, or peak. Therefore it's crucial to have a very high level of non-race-specific running fitness before you start to do race-specific workouts. By taking the time to build your fitness to a high level with an emphasis on the types of training that serve as a foundation for race fitness, you can perform your race-specific workouts at a higher level and therefore race at a higher level. But if you start trying to do race-specific workouts in the first week of a training cycle, when your base fitness level is relatively low, you will not be able to perform these workouts at a high level, and when you reach your adaptive limit four to six weeks later, you will not have made much progress from your starting point.

4. Three-Period Training Cycles

In adaptive running, the training cycle is divided into three periods, or phases. The training cycle starts with an introductory period, which lasts just a few weeks; it then moves into a longer fundamental period, where your training becomes increasingly specific; and it culminates in a sharpening period, where you make your running fitness as race-specific as possible.5. Lots of Hill Running

People who know only a little about my training system seem to know me as the coach who has his runners do a lot of hill sprints. Short hill sprints are an integral feature of my training system, and one that I use with every runner. However, this method is no more important than any of the 11 other adaptive running methods. Nor am I the only coach who uses steep hill sprints. In fact, I borrowed the specific approach to hill sprints that I now use from the Italian coach Renato Canova, who in turn learned about them from an American sprint coach named Bud James.

Like the other core training methods in my system, hill work is used throughout the training cycle. The amount and type of hill training varies, however. We start with very short sprints – approximately eight seconds apiece – at maximal intensity on the steepest hill we can find. The nature of this challenge is not much different from that of a set of explosive Olympic weightlifting exercises in the gym, except it is more running-specific. These short, maximal-intensity efforts against gravity offer two key benefits. First, they strengthen all of the running muscles, making the runner much less injury-prone. They also increase the power and efficiency of the stride, enabling the runner to cover more ground with each stride with less energy in race circumstances. These are significant benefits from a training method that takes very little time and is fun to do.

As the weeks go by, we gradually increase the number of sprints performed in each session. The intervals also become slightly longer (increasing to 10 seconds and finally to 12 seconds), and we may move to less-steep gradients. This process serves to make the gains in strength, power, and muscle fiber recruitment more specific to race-intensity and race–duration running.

Hill running is the only "weightlifting" my runners do. They hoist no barbells or dumbbells. They do some exercises to develop strength in their abdominal muscles and lower back, but that's it. Some other runners lift weights to build strength and prevent injuries. I believe that short hill sprints achieve the same effect. A number of the runners I've coached over the years have come to me with long injury histories, but in every such case I've been able to keep them healthy, and I attribute much of this success to hill work.

In addition to hill sprints, I make frequent use of longer hill repetitions and uphill progressions. Hill repetitions are essentially speed work with an added hill component. They put less strain on the legs than traditional speed work, making them a good alternative early in the training cycle for all runners as well as for those limited by their strength. Uphill progressions are prolonged stretches of uphill running (10 minutes or more) at the end of an otherwise easy run. They are an effective way to increase the aerobic training stimulus and the strength-building stimulus of a workout without taking too much out of a runner.

6. Extreme Intensity and Workload Modulation

Intensity modulation refers to changing the pace level or levels that are targeted from workout to workout. Extreme intensity modulation means changing target pace levels more frequently and to a greater degree throughout the typical week of training than most runners do. Workload modulation refers to changing the overall challenge level of a workout from one run to the next. (Bear in mind that a high-intensity workout is not the same thing as a high-workload workout. Very fast runs can be relatively easy if they're also short, while moderate-pace runs can be quite challenging if they're long enough.) Extreme workload modulation means mixing workouts of widely varying challenge levels throughout the week.

I believe in doing two hard workouts per week, not including the weekend long run. I believe that workouts have the greatest fitness-boosting effect when they take you to a higher level of performance than you have previously achieved in the present training cycle. In order to take you to a higher performance level, the workout must be demanding in duration and intensity, but it also must occur when your body is fully up to this challenge. Having more recovery time between hard workouts enables you to perform better in each hard workout, which enhances the fitness-boosting potential of each hard workout–provided you once again give your body a chance to absorb it.

If the hard workouts tend to be especially hard in the adaptive running system, the easy workouts are often equally extreme at the other end of the workload spectrum. The single most common training error I see in competitive runners is running too hard on supposed easy days. A longer, slower recovery run is better than a shorter, faster one, because a longer recovery run adds more volume to your training, and again, volume is the number-one determinant of running fitness.